KDNL’s parent acquires 8 stations for $985 million

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which owns KDNL-TV Channel 30 in St. Louis, will purchase eight television stations across the U.S. for $985 million from the Allbritton family.

The stations include seven ABC affiliates that cover nearly 5 percent of U.S. households as well as NewsChannel 8, a 24-hour cable news network covering the Washington D.C. metro area.

Sinclair also owns KBSI, a Fox affiliate, and WDKA in Cape Girardeau. It also owns WYZZ, a Fox affiliate, in Peoria, Ill.

The company anticipates that the transaction will close in the fourth quarter of 2013, pending regulatory approval.

To comply with FCC rules that one company cannot own two of the top four rates stations in a designated market, Sinclair expects to sell the license and certain related assets of its existing stations in Birmingham, Ala. (WABM and WTTO), Harrisburg, Pa. (WHP) and Charleston, S.C. (WMMP), according to a statement from the company.